Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Costa Short Story Award lifts the lid on finalists

Only half are published authors.

Salley Vickers has been
nominated for the Costa Short Story AwardPhoto: Rex
Features

By Felicity Capon - The Telegraph 24 Jan 2013

The identities of the six finalists shortlisted for the inaugural Costa Short
Story Award have been revealed today.

Only three of the authors making the shortlist are published; Guy le Jeune,
Sheila Llewellyn and Angela Readman have yet to have their work published.

The new award, which was established this year, is unique in that it is
judged anonymously, so that the judges do not know the names of the authors of
the stories they read. The award is open to both published and unpublished
writers.

One of the authors shortlisted is Salley Vickers, who wrote the word-of-mouth
bestseller Miss Garnet’s Angel and several other bestselling novels.

The panel of judges - Richard Beard, Fanny Blake, Victoria Hislop, Gary Kemp
and Simon Trewin - selected the final six, which were then made available on the
Costa Book Awards website for the public to read and vote for their favourite.

The final six stories are:

Small Town Removal by Guy le Jeune.

Millie and Bird by Avril Joy.

Dislocation by Sheila Llewellyn.

Trompette de la Mort by Chioma Okereke

Don’t Try This at Home by Angela Readman

Mown Grass by Salley Vickers

The story that gets the most public votes will receive £3,500 at the Costa
Book Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 29th January, with two runners-up each receiving
£750. The award is run in association with the Costa Books Awards but judged
independently of the main five-category system. For the main Costa Book of the Year award, bookmakers William Hill have
novelist Hilary Mantel as odds-on favourites at 5-4.She was the winner of the
Costa Novel Award with Bring Up the Bodies, her sequel to Wolf
Hall.